The 1991 Adventures of a Navy Officer: We Recognized We Were Not Really Going Anywhere

One of the great things about blogging has been the connections it has created with friends and family.   For example, we have really been enjoying the emails that our friends Sean and Michelle have been sending from Kailua, Hawaii.  Sean is one of the smartest people that we know.  He shares our passion for and addiction to windsurfing, and we appreciate that he always has a cup of coffee in his hands.
 
Sean works with submarines as a civilian contractor in Hawaii (I think).  Jamey probably understands Sean's work better than I do.  I can only describe his work as "something to do with submarines, but highly classified so he can't really tell us."

In 2010 the following announcement was made:

> SUBJ/ HERMAN DWORKIN MARITIME ANALYTIC EXCELLENCE AWARD SELECTION 2010// POC/A. EASTON/LT/N2N6C1/LOC:WASHINGTON DC/TEL:(703)695-3982// RMKS/1. REQUEST ALL ADDEES GIVE THIS MESSAGE WIDEST DISSEMINATION TO SUBORDINATE ACTIVITIES/ELEMENTS WITH INTELLIGENCE PERSONNEL ASSIGNED.

> 2. SINCE 1983, THE HERMAN DWORKIN AWARD IS PRESENTED ANNUALLY TO THE CIVILIAN OR MILITARY ANALYST WORKING MARITIME ISSUES WHO EXEMPLIFIES, THROUGH HIS/HER WORK AND ATTITUDE, MR. DWORKIN'S TRAITS OF ANALYTIC EXPERTISE, STRENGTH OF CHARACTER, INITIATIVE, INDUSTRIOUSNESS AND EXACTITUDE.

> 3. THE SELECTEE FOR 2010 IS MR. SEAN BROSSEAU OF COMMANDER SUBMARINE FORCES, U.S. PACIFIC FLEET, FOR HIS ANALYTIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO IMPROVING SUBMARINE MISSION PERFORMANCE.

> 4. THE AWARD WILL BE PRESENTED AT THE NAVAL INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONAL'S "RED TIE" LUNCHEON SCHEDULED FOR 23 APRIL 2010 AT THE TYSON'S CROWNE PLAZA, MCLEAN, VA. MR. BROSSEAU'S NAME WILL BE INSCRIBED FOREVER ON A LARGE PLAQUE ON DISPLAY AT THE OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

Below are pictures and stories from him, taken directly from his emails.

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Aloha Nancy, Jamey, and all the girls !

It’s been fun reading through your blog, especially because of some ties to some of the areas you guys have travelled through.

I grew up in Havre de Grace, MD, basically where the Susquehanna River opens up and the Chesapeake Bay starts.  It seems like you guys started out in the Bay south of there. You can show the girls where HdG is ...

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Havre+de+Grace,+MD&hl=en&ll=39.557464,-76.091652&spn=0.047513,0.132093&sll=20.46,-157.505&sspn=9.953227,16.907959&oq=havre+de+grace&t=h&hnear=Havre+de+Grace,+Harford,+Maryland&z=14

Other good tidbits...  Way back when I was in the Navy, the submarine I was on (USS ALBANY)...

(The picture below is in Gibraltar in 1992.)

...ended up in two of the shipyards/drydocks you guys have passed by:

1) Newport News Shipyard in Hampton area (where you saw the new aircraft carrier being built...)   This was also where my boat was built.  ALBANY had the distinction of being the last U.S. submarine to be built and launched “on the ways”...sliding backward into the river. Nowadays, they are rolled out and lowered in the river in a launch dock.

2) We also had to go into drydock at Kings Bay Submarine Base down near St. Marys Georgia for a short visit for repairs.  As you may have figured out, the “castles” the girls saw down in that neck of the woods are the paper mills in the area.  White pine grows fast...good for making paper pulp.  But smelly if you are downwind...

I also did some short sailing on the ICW down in Florida when we were attending Nuclear Power School in Orlando back in 1991.  Some charter boat company was foolish enough to rent a boat to a bunch of brand new Navy officers.  I had to really chuckle about stories about running aground and following the day markers.  Late in the afternoon, we grounded, but it was a muddy/sandy bottom and we sort of eased in without knowing, until after a while we recognized we were not really going anywhere.  Then one of the guys dives in to see what we are caught on, and the water is only up to his thighs.  The other fun thing was not making it to our planned anchorage for the night, and trying to follow day markers sitting on the bow with a Q-beam light.  We were not the “saltiest” of mariners, by any stretch :

Anyways, keep having fun in your adventures.  It certainly is fun to read the stories...(Pungo is a name I have not heard since we lived in Va Beach...great strawberries

in the summer...)

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[After finding out that we had started out in Massachusetts and had passed by Havre de Grace and because I asked him for more pictures, Sean sent the following:]

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Cool...you guys must have gone through the C&D Canal, and popped into the bay right across from where my dad works...Aberdeen Proving Ground.  They don’t shoot artillery out into the bay anymore, so not quite as exciting as when I was a kid.  You also went right by Elk Neck State Park, another place I have been to.

If you go back that way, you should stop in Havre de Grace.  (The British did in the War of 1812 and burned the town down.  quick history lesson for the girls...)

It’s a cool little town.   Plus, if anything is broken that you need fixed, I would volunteer my dad to help. Although I have to say, Jamey is pretty handy....I dig the repair stories.  All part of the seagoing adventure.

Here’s my dad working on the car he is restoring.  New quiz for  the girls... the name of the manufacturer of this type of car (from 1936) is the same word used to describe a large amount of cut firewood (a concept pretty foreign to Hawaii girls...)

There is a photographer in HdG who maintains a Facebook page called Forgotten Havre de Grace.  He posts pretty amazing shots of the river, bay, waterfront, etc.  I am sure you can appreciate them spending so much time on the Chesapeake.

https://www.facebook.com/havredegrace

The real trick with the tube behind the boat is the swap out of riders.  Note ingenious use of 2 lines...only something a boat full of engineers would come up with.  And you need to be confident in your treading water skills as it might take a while to come back and get someone who falls off. We learned quickly the swap was too hard to do holding a beer can, so refreshments were tossed after successfully getting on the tube.

Here are a couple more I scanned from that same sailing trip back in 1991 (we were in school in Orlando for 6 months from Mar-Aug) , including one going under a bridge, probably doing the same thing you did...looking up and wondering if you will make it.

Fair winds and following seas...

Sean, Michelle and Windy

Thank you for sharing with us, Sean and Michelle!!

I love this picture that Sean took of them playing on our bay at home. 

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WHERE WE ARE:  Anchored in Hobe Sound, Mile 1001! Another Hallelujah Moment for Jamey (first one was at Mile Zero).  Warm water, good swimming.

WHERE WE STARTED: Moored at Vero Beach City Marina, Mile 952

THERE TO HERE:  51 miles, Jamey at the helm with a little help from Nancy and Phoenix.

Jamey caught a fish by motoring along with the handline trolling behind. 

Here is a video showing one of the reasons why Sage has a ton of calluses on her hands: